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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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NASA NTRS1990

CELSS research and development program

Research in Controlled Ecological Life Support Systems (CELSS) conducted by NASA indicate that plant based systems are feasible candidates for human support in space. Ames has responsibility for research and development, systems integration and control, and space flight experiment portions of the CELSS program. Important areas for development of new methods and technologies are biomass production, waste processing, water purification, air revitalization, and food processing. For the plant system, the approach was to identify the flexibility and response time for the food, water, and oxygen production, and carbon dioxide consumption processes. Tremendous increases in productivity, compared with terrestrial agriculture, were realized. Waste processing research emphasizes recycle (transformation) of human wastes, trash, and inedible biomass to forms usable as inputs to the plant production system. Efforts to improve efficiency of the plant system, select new CELSS crops for a balanced diet, and initiate closed system research with the Crop Growth Research Chambers continue. The System Control and Integration program goal is to insure orchestrated system operation of the biological, physical, and chemical operation of the biological, physical, and chemical component processors of the CELSS. Space flight studies are planned to verify adequate operation of the system in reduced gravity or microgravity environments.

Bubenheim, David↗
DOE OSTI2018

Final Scientific Findings Report- Hydro Research Foundation- Research Awards Program

The Research Awards Program was established in 2014 by the Hydro Research Foundation (Foundation) to support research efforts for the hydropower industry. Using the previously funded Fellowship Program that ran from 2010-2015, the Research Awards Program (RAP or program) captured the lessons learned from the Fellowship program and fine-tuned a nation-wide graduate level research program to support innovation, research and workforce development. The RAP was funded through a $2 million-dollar grant through the Department of Energy’s Water Power Program within the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy office (DOE). This award made possible, 33 research projects by 32 students from 21 universities in 11 states. The grant widely engaged the industry by providing the opportunity to work with 25 organizations as well as 63 students and advisors. The funded research focused on a topic list selected by industry and worked to cover a breadth of research needs across many disciplines, basins and types of hydropower issues. The funded work, answered pressing research needs in the fields of the following disciplines; civil engineering, mechanical engineering, environmental engineering, electrical engineering, geography, fisheries, wildlife, water resources, geology, energy science and materials innovation. The Foundation estimates that 116 individuals benefited from this research through either direct mentorship (42), research (32), overseeing the research (31), partnerships (7) and the day-to-day management of the program (4). This investment by DOE showcases how private-public partnerships can leverage limited funds to create a wide range of research products. The project objective was to build on the successful Fellowship Program to develop and execute the RAP on a national level. The program sought to provide competitively awarded hydropower-related graduate-level research awards. The intent of the RAP was to support beneficial, innovative research related to conventional or pumped-storage hydropower. It also sought to stimulate interest among students and universities in this research arena and provide students with a foundation for productive careers within the hydropower industry. The outcome was 33 research findings with 100% of proposed research completed. In addition, 87% of students chose to either join the hydropower industry or continue their hydropower related research at their universities. These research findings advanced the understanding of pressing research topics within the hydropower industry and met the objective of the funding. An ancillary benefit the program identified through this funding was, not only did 63 students and advisors work on hydropower within the academia space, but now there are more professors and students teaching hydropower at the university level. The program saw an addition of 12 new professors, teaching assistants, and graduate researchers continuing to simulate interest in hydropower. Another interesting outcome is that during this grant funding, the program saw alumni of the predecessor program, who are now professors, applying for the RAP with their students. A unique element of this funding is there was significant cost-share provided by host universities, who did not charge facilities and administration overhead to the student’s research awards. In addition, each university provided laboratories, computing capacity and research facilities to support the research which is extraordinarily unique to grant funding at the university level. The total cost share exceeded 30% of the total grant cost. The funding clearly reached many sectors of the industry to provide helpful work and continue building hydropower’s next generation of innovation and workforce. The Foundation has established a broad network of universities interested and engaged in hydropower. The work was supported by the hydropower industry through donations of meeting space, conference registrations, in-kind contributions, mentorship and support of students. The Foundation would recommend finding a vehicle to further advance programs like the graduate level research through competitions, competitively funded awards and student research. It will take many universities to advance hydropower’s most pressing challenges. To let a program like the RAP dwindle away would incapacitate research at universities.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program Materials Research Pathway Technical Program Plan

The Materials Research (MR) Pathway within the Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program is charged with performing the research and development (R&D) to develop the scientific basis for understanding and predicting long-term environmental degradation behavior of materials in nuclear reactors. Furthermore, it is essential to use the mechanistic understanding of degradation phenomena in materials to develop mitigation, repair, and new material alternatives for existing components. The work will provide data and methods to assess performance of systems, structures, and components (SSCs) essential to safe and sustained reactor operations. The R&D products developed from the LWRS Program will be used by utilities, industry groups, and regulators to inform operational and regulatory requirements for materials in reactor SSCs subjected to long-term operation conditions, providing key input to both regulators and industry. The intent of this research is to help in reducing the operating costs, which may be in the form of offset maintenance costs due to better predictive models for component lifetimes, improved analysis of materials through nondestructive evaluation, reduced costs for repairs, or extended performance of plants through the selection of improved replacement materials. To best achieve this, industry experience and guidance are important as is their role in coordinated or collaborative research projects. The objectives of this report are to describe the motivation and organization of the MR Pathway within the LWRS Program, provide details on the individual research tasks within the MR Pathway, describe the outcomes and deliverables of the MR Pathway, including recent technical highlights and progress, and list the requirements for performing the research.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program Materials Research Pathway Technical Program Plan

The objectives of this report are to describe the motivation and organization of the MR Pathway within the LWRS program; provide details on the individual research tasks within the MR Pathway; describe the outcomes and deliverables of the MR Pathway, including recent technical highlights and progress; and describe the requirements for performing this critically important research.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

LSKnowledge: Nexus for Transformative Scientific Discoveries and Enhanced Information Retrieval in NASA Life Sciences Portal

We stand at the brink of an extraordinary transformation in the field of AI, driven by the convergence of generative AI and semantic technologies (e.g., knowledge graphs). This fusion holds immense potential and could redefine the future of scientific exploration, particularly in the realm of life sciences research. In this context, we shed light on the pivotal roles that Large Language Models (LLMs) and semantic technologies will play in advancing research, unearthing and comprehending life sciences information through innovative approaches, and empowering researchers to extract insights from NASA's extensive Life Sciences Data Archive. Within the NASA Life Sciences Portal (NLSP), the integration of LLMs and semantic technologies unlocks several advanced capabilities. First and foremost, it equips scientists with sophisticated tools to manage the ever-expanding wealth of scientific literature and data. Furthermore, it facilitates the creation of knowledge graphs that visually represent intricate relationships among biological entities, enabling comprehensive systems-level analysis. Additionally, the fusion of generative AI (including LLMs) and semantic technology can significantly benefit NASA's life sciences research by enhancing information retrieval and hypothesis generation. These tools enhance natural language understanding, facilitating knowledge discovery within NLSP. The overarching vision is to establish a cohesive knowledge ecosystem within NLSP, harnessing the power of LLMs and semantic technologies to synthesize and cross-reference data from diverse missions, disciplines, and research domains. This holistic approach ultimately deepens our understanding of how space environments impact life sciences data. To advance this initiative, we have launched LSKnowledge, aimed at enhancing the information retrieval capabilities of NLSP. In the short term, our primary goal is to develop a robust semantic search system. This system will empower HRP (Human Research Program) researchers to navigate NLSP data repositories more efficiently and precisely, catalyzing the process of hypothesis formation and scientific breakthroughs. To achieve this, we have employed pre-trained LLMs as part of a semantic search tool that can rank and highlight the most relevant records for user queries. To assess the tool's performance, we have curated a set of approximately 200 queries from subject matter experts (SMEs) and manually ranked the top records retrieved by both the current search system and the new semantic search, using SME judgments as the gold standard for relevancy. Herein, we present the results of our comparative analysis and illustrate how these findings have informed the fine-tuning of the system for enhanced performance. In the long term, our objectives include 1) retrieving publicly available information and integrating it with NLSP data to provide more precise answers to user queries, and 2) incorporating non-textual information from the NLSP database into our approach. In conclusion, the fusion of LLMs and semantic technologies within NLSP represents a pioneering stride towards reshaping the landscape of scientific discovery. This synergy not only equips researchers with powerful tools to navigate the burgeoning sea of information but also facilitates a deeper understanding of complex biological relationships, all while accelerating hypothesis generation and knowledge discovery. Through our initiative, LSKnowledge, we are committed to continually refining and expanding these capabilities, with the aim of not only enhancing information retrieval but also integrating diverse data sources to provide more precise insights. In the grand vision, NLSP strives to become the cornerstone of a comprehensive knowledge ecosystem, unraveling the enigmatic intricacies of life sciences phenomena in the context of space environments.

Life Sciences↗